Ahmed Yahaya-Joe
“My grandfather was a Northerner. I am a Nigerian.” – Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi II, 14th & 16th Emir of Kano (2009)
Back in 1977, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Sidiq III, was eminently conferred with an honorary degree at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) founded in 1960.
It was a significantly warm handshake across Nigeria. Barely two years later, in 1979, an influential council member of the 17th Sultan since 1962 would be sworn into office alongside an illustrious scion of Oko, Dr. Ifeanyichukwu Alex Ekwueme, as president and vice president, respectively, during the since-rested Second Republic.
Noteworthy, during the 30-month stint of UNN as University of Biafra, Kano’s 13th Emir Ado Bayero remained that ivory tower’s Chancellor.
He had been appointed to the position back in 1966 by his bosom friend, then Military Governor of the defunct Eastern Region.
Fast forward to the 50th inaugural lecture of Usumanu Dan Fodio University Sokoto (UDUS) in 2024. Titled: The Igbo Factor in the History of Inter-Group Relations and Commerce in Kano: Opportunities and Challenges Revisited, delivered by Prof. Ahmed Bako.
In attendance was the 20th Sultan, who 47 years prior had just been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of the Nigerian Army when Sir Sidiq was feted in Nsukka.
Expectedly, in the aftermath, many reactions to the presentation arose ranging from the most banal to the very vital.
The fundamental issue, nonetheless, remains that as Nigerians, we shall continue to find ways to further engage each other through rigorous debate and even cross-fertilization of ideas despite our entrenched but not insurmountable differences.
Beyond coincidence and even happenchance, there is perhaps a damn good reason why the wordsmith, Paul C. Nwabuikwu specifically chose the 29th July 2026 to present his memoirs to the public.
This is exactly 60 years to the day after what was actually a mutiny rather than its long-standing mischaracterization as a counter-coup.
Interestingly, our author’s initials PCN rhyme with that of his older sibling and a brother of sorts to yours truly popularly CCN, Commander Christian Nwabuikwu.
Six decades ago, in what was a very poorly conceived and heinously executed Northern attempt to secede from Nigeria, this writer was a mere 4-year-old infant.
I therefore have absolutely no discernible recollection of the unfortunate events of 29th July 1966 in turn triggered by a callous truncation of the First Republic, save of what a very senior family member of mine has condensed for posterity in 2024 entitled Family, Identity, School, State: A Memoire.
Khalifa of our title quote’s fame chaired the event when his subject, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim from Zawaciki in Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State presented his autobiography alongside six other incisive books covering various aspects of our national life as seen from his vantage position.
That is why I similarly make bold to affirm that PCN should be a Kano subject of His Highness, Sanusi II. Albeit in a better Nigeria.
This pre-launch tribute is a long overdue ode to PCN’s thought-provoking intervention entitled “Why this Biafra Boy doesn’t hate Yakubu Gowon” posted on October 24, 2023.
Certainly, why part of the title of this offering is a twist inspired by Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwo’s Because I am Involved, published in 1989.
One therefore expects no less incisiveness, including “dogon turenci” from PCN in The Pain and The Promise: Insights and Fragments on Nigeria and People, Public and Personal, 1990-2026.
For me the empty shell casing with the bouquet flowers on the invitation card already speaks volumes that the prospective reader would be treated to various insights on Nigeria’s “unfinished greatness” and other intuitive musings as the book title conveys.
While yours truly makes that presumption advisedly, the other less mentioned 29th July back in 1975 was 9 years after the eminent grise and main beneficiary of those tumultuous events reached the culmination of their salient power struggle since 29th July 1966.
In September 1974, then Brigadier Murtala Mohammed would quip to Alhaji Shehu Shagari about their mutual boss, General Yakubu Gowon: “Don’t mind him.
We shall soon remove him. We put him there, and we can remove him anytime.” – Part 6, Military Rebellion of July 29, 1975 by Dr. Nowa Omoigui
What a twist!
No doubt the patriarch of the Nwabuikwu clan from the erstwhile Eastern Region had the same geographical bragging rights as Sanusi II’s grandfather.
However, CCN and PCN, including the bevvy of their beautiful sisters, lest I forget a younger brother, Peter are all deservedly Nigerians no less than Khalifa.
The exceedingly welcoming Nwabuikwu senior homestead superintended by the indomitable lady of substance, Mama was always a safe bolt zone for many of us stalwarts of the now aging “Ofege” generation at Sanyaolu Street in Kano.
Avid with youthful exuberance, not excluding that recurrent characteristic that “Every generation thinks itself wiser than the one that went before.” – George Orwell (1903-1950)
Indeed, those were the halcyon days!
According to Muffett “Hindsight is an excellent tool for analysis.” – p.1 Let the Truth be Told: The Coups d’Etat of 1966 (1982)
I totally agree. That is why the need to openly confess that a quantum of inter-generational mistakes has been made across the board in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized.
We have all been victims and villains, alternatively. One way or the other, others more, which begs the nagging question of what, eventually, is the way forward out of this constantly recurring conundrum?
For many, it’s Restructuring. A vague solution that is neither a silver bullet nor “deus ex machina.”
There is arguably nothing inherently wrong with the 1999 Constitution as amended. The main challenge remains the operators. I’d reckon so but humbly standing to be corrected.
We the people have been blindsided by so much post-truth of our making. That self-destructive political environment where objective facts are often less influential in shaping public opinion than repeated falsehoods that even override factual rebuttals.
Take, for instance, as PCN wrote in 2023 on the significance of his Facebook profile picture featuring General Gowon and Dim Ojukwu in embrace, a tight grip, a slight grin and a polite smile.
Brother officers united in an ancient code of chivalry; “Many of the surviving combatants and civilians on both sides – and their children and grandchildren – are not ready to join them in that historic photo, metaphorically speaking. And most never will. The reasons are not a mystery.”
Yet, Dim’s own words speaking from the grave in his recollections; “People make me laugh when they talk about an enmity between Gowon and Ojukwu….In leading the war, we both postured.
For anyone, therefore, to extend this posturing and make it permanent on the national stage, to my mind, is sterile. I will most certainly invite Gowon to my house for lunch any day.” – p.165
Once again, returning to our title quote of 2009, when the man formerly known as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was speaking at the book presentation of Sir Olaniwun’s Nigeria: Africa’s Failed Asset, he continued: “There are good Yoruba people, good Igbo people, good Fulani people, good Nigerians, and there are bad people everywhere.”
A year later, the sage writer Chinua Achebe writes in apparent agreement: “Every ethnic group is, of course, something of a problem for Nigeria’s easy achievement of cohesive nationhood.” – p.64 An Image of Africa and the Trouble with Nigeria
This writer is not unduly bothered that he soon after evidently contradicted himself the next page; “Nigerians of all other ethnic groups will probably achieve no consensus,” on his kinsmen, attitudinally.
Regardless, one is unperturbed because just two years later, Prof. Achebe had the unusual candour to admit certain monumental shortcomings about his own kinsmen.
No public intellectual of repute has so significantly looked inwards to offer a far-reaching and detailed constructive criticism of his people like the bard of Ogidi.
While the details are on page 76 of There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012), there is still an ominous dearth of rejoinders to the detailed rebuttal of Achebe’s memoirs published in PM News magazine edition of 5th March 2013 under the title Biafra: The Facts, The Fiction by Damola Awoyokun.
Sir Olaniwun Ajayi (1925-2016) was a legal luminary and Afenifere chieftain, albeit with sufficient confidence in our national project to invite a Fulani prince as guest speaker, who had started unequivocally: “Let me start by saying that I am Fulani (laughter).
My grandfather was an emir, and I therefore represent all that has been talked about this afternoon.
Sir Ajayi has written a book. And like all Nigerians of his generation, he has written in the language of his generation.”
Continuing; “The problem with this country is that in 2009, we speak in the language of 1953. Sir Olaniwun can be forgiven for the way he spoke, but I cannot forgive people of my generation speaking in that language.”
If so, in what language has PCN written his maiden book?
While I’d wager, it is in the language of the “Ofege” generation.
We are the boisterous teenagers of the roaring 1970s.
So, kindly be rest assured that PCN is worth every word he has ever written. His impressive track record of penmanship is surely worthy to be a collector’s item.
So, PCN, thank you very much for adding to our nation’s knowledge economy.
Hopefully, you have not forgotten that since there are too many conflicting narratives in our nation, no single story is expected to be more eminent than the other.
Due apologies to Ms. Chimamanda’s advisory on the danger in a single story.
In conclusion, permit me to cordially invite all and sundry of goodwill on behalf of CCN indeed the entire Nwabuikwu clan to their son’s book presentation taking place in the nation’s capital at NAF Conference Center and Suites by 9.00am prompt on the 29th July 2026.
